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Every article you write should be as perfect as you can make it if you plan to sell the article. If you are not going to sell the article but instead put it out on the Internet for public display, what should the standard be?

Look at it this way. You are a landscape painter of good reputation. You sell your landscapes for up to $3500 each. You work hard on these paintings trying to use the best available subject, the best quality canvasses and paints, and the best skills you can muster. When a painting is finished you sign it which says, “I Joe Blow painted this landscape.”

If your reputation as an artist is good, there will always be a demand for your paintings. Would you jeopardize your reputation by putting out a series of paintings with poor subject selection, inferior canvas and paints, and sloppy skills?

Of course not!

So think the same way about your writing.

As some of you know, I will write on any subject from “aardvarks” to “zeppelins.” Most writers focus on certain related subject areas like medicine, marketing, or snowmobiling.

When you choose a subject you choose an audience. The reverse should also be true. If you choose an audience you must choose a subject in which that audience is interested.

Let’s pretend that you want to sell an article to a magazine that focuses on a particular audience. Let’s say the audience is people who raise fish as a hobby but only in salt water. The magazine is called Salt Water Fish Monthly.

You have written a dandy article on raising guppies. Would you send that to Salt Water Fish Monthly?

Answer: No! Guppies are fresh water fish. Also they are so common that even fresh-water fish hobby magazines would show no interest unless you had developed a new strain of guppy purple in color with pink poke-a-dots.

Also, don’t send that article on detecting prostate cancer early to Salt Water Fish Monthly.

So that brings up a new area for discussion, doesn’t it? Your article should be original and fresh and up-to-date.

I write many articles for the Internet. I don’t think too much about the topic. I will write on anything because I’m writing for fun.

I try to find a category for my finished article in the category list of www.ezinearticles.com.

That listing is limited and is still in a state of flux as the editor adds new topics.

For example: If I write an article on a history subject, where do I put it?

There is no history category under Education and Reference. I study the article and decide the closest fit. I may just put it under the broad heading Education and Reference. Often, I put such articles under “Kids and Teens.” I put my UFO articles there also as there is no science fiction category.

I don’t expect the editor to study my titles and add categories just for me. He has over 12000 writers to deal with. But I am one of the top writers in terms of volume, so maybe I will get some consideration for future categories.

When searching for an article on the Internet, what do you do?

Answer: You type in keywords.

We www.ezinearticles.com writers are allowed to place a limited number of keywords for each article. I generally would like to add more keywords than are allowed, so I have to edit my keywords carefully.

And now I will tell you a secret. Knowing the keyword population being used on the Internet is a valuable asset for an Internet writer. Marilyn Monroe visited our unit in Korea. The article I wrote on the subject is very popular. Why? Her name is a top listed Internet keyword.

My most popular article Ten Reasons David Letterman Wears White Sox is popular because David Letterman is popular. This article was a very slow starter but then took off and continues to rush by my other articles in terms of number of readers. It just passed Bed Bug Bites or Chicken Pox: A Definitive Analysis.

Bed bugs are back so there is a big audience for bed bugs.

Here are some considerations for your article:

1. Does it have broad interest (BI) or a limited special interest (LSI)?

2. If it has LSI, submit it to a publication that you have studied (more than one issue) that focuses on the exact audience you want to reach. You might query the publication first and receive their author guidelines.

3. An editor may want you to modify your LSI article. Just do it! Don’t argue with editors. You will generally lose. If you really don’t want to change your little jewel, then withdraw the article, cutting off your pay check.

4. When you write your article I suggest you just start writing. When you come to an areas that you have little knowledge, don’t stop writing. Just put a bunch of dashes where the missing information will go.

When you finish the draft, see if there is some kind of order that can be pursued. Write an outline to follow.

Now do some research to fill in the blanks.

Try to find fresh up-to-date data for your article.

Put your thoughts in your article. It’s your canvas, isn’t it?

5. Keep sending the article out to one magazine at a time until you sell it. If an editor gives comments or suggestion, consider rewriting the article and submitting it again to that editor.

I’ve published hundreds of articles in magazines and journals. When I retired from industry, a trade magazine hired me as editor. The reason was that I had written engineering articles on a monthly basis for the magazine for many years.

Know This: Editors will bend over backwards to help you get an article published in their magazines if its focus is the same as the magazines.

Magazines work on a publication plan that dictates the types of articles it will publish in a certain monthly issue. You should ask them to give you the list of articles desired for a particular issue. Then write an article for that issue making sure it gets to the editor several months before the publication date of the issue.

Here are some rules for article writing:

1. Don’t over edit your article cutting out subject matter that the editor might want to include.

It’s better to send in a longer article than one that is so short it becomes trite. You can shorten rather than cut.

Be careful!

I suggest that if you are going to cover a subject make sure the coverage is comprehensive.

The editor has a pencil.

If the article is too broad, change it to a series of articles each covering a major point of interest.

Editors love to run series. Why? Because a series of articles will take up space that the editor will not have to fill for the next few issues.

2. Use short sentences but vary sentence length and use words known to the reader.

Use headings where appropriate to break up the test.

Properly place footnotes as endnotes. Follow your Style Manual.

3. Never send an editor copy that is not clean and neat.

That means when Magazine A returns your article, you don’t send that same copy to Magazine B unless it is still in excellent condition.

There were no coffee stains on the back were there?

4. Send a letter with your article submission. Tell the editor who you are and why you wrote the article.

Don’t say that you wrote the article so that you could sell it and make money.

Instead, say that the article was written to address a particular problem or issue. Tell him that the article takes an original approach to the problem.

Well, say something! The editor wants to know you.

Include a SASE if you want your article back on rejection.

5. Have your article on disk or be ready to email a copy that the editor can edit.

Editors like to work from a computer disk or email (attachment) copy so that the article does not have to be retyped.

Scanning an article is possible but some editors won’t want to do that.

I frequently had articles submitted to me on disk only.

I always required a disk.

Always remember to check your article for:

1. Clarity
2. Focus
3. Appeal
4. Grammar and Style
5. Timeliness
6. Spelling

Make sure you watch for homonyms. There instead of their, wear instead of ware, than instead of then (not exactly homonyms), while instead of wile. I use my “find and replace function” to check for such.

Here’s another hint: If you can’t get started writing using your computer keyboard, switch to pen and paper.

There is a connection between hand writing and the brain that will help you get going.

I don’t know what that connection is.

Hey! That sounds like another article.

Happy Writing!

The End

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com

You’ve built a website and are very proud to be counted among the ranks. Now you’re expecting people to come for a visit. In fact if this is your first website you’re probably thinking maybe I’ll get a few visitors or maybe a thousand visitors. Would it surprise you if I told you that you are going to get very few visitors?

Remember the movie Field of Dreams, 1989? Kevin Costner plays an Iowa farmer whose dream is to be a baseball player, something his father wanted for his own life. In the movie he hears voices from players that have passed on. What he hears becomes an aphorism still used today, if you build it he (they) will come. Meaning if he built the ball field his father, shoeless Joe and other baseball players from Chicago would come and he would get his chance. However this is not the case with building a website. Unfortunately no one knows you’re there and you won’t hear any voices telling where to go from here. Eventually the search engines will pick it up and you will get a few visitors that will trickle in but how to get the thousands to come is the question.

Building is just the beginning. You had your fun and now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty. It’s called Website promotion. One of the secrets to tons of traffic to your website is to create one way back links. Writing articles is a way to get these back links. The proof is in the article you are reading right now that it works. Any questions?

Yes it’s time to get out the paper and pen like you did in school. People want information. They want to learn something new. They want to feel they have some inside information that no one else has. This is the information age, are you going to give them what they want?

If you have studied website promotion you probably have heard that content is king and if you haven’t then that’s probably good because it is slowly becoming obscure replaced with unique content is king. There are several things you can do to get started. You can buy private label content, (previously written articles) a big no no in my opinion since it indeed has been used everywhere else. You can purchase article generator software that puts a few filler words into your private label content, thus a new article. However I would not go this route as filler words are not usually unique. Another way would be to write the articles yourself.

What am I going to write you ask. If you sell wedding dresses your readers are going to want to know about weddings, picking out dresses and maybe advice about the important day. If you sell travel packages your audience is going to want to know about the best places to see. If you’re a breeder and someone is looking to buy a puppy, you might want to write an article on how to choose one. If you are a guitar salesman your readers might want to know which one is the best. The world is ready for uniqueness and information so here’s your chance.

How does an article help my site and what does it do? Most sites that accept articles for submission allow you a generous author’s bio at the bottom of your article. This is where you are going to give a brief description of yourself as well as the links of two or three sites you may be promoting. Over time you will create thousands of back links to your site that will send google into a tizzy. Back links is how the google determines what websites are worthy enough to have their robots roam upon. Roaming on your site is what you want.

I can’t write anything you say. I feel empathy for you but do not despair, you can hire a ghostwriter. Give the writer your ideas, pay the fee and let them put the pen to the paper. These days to be politically correct it would be fingers to the keyboard. Unfortunately be careful of who you have write the articles. There are some sneaky people out there that will buy these software generators themselves and try to sell you the same articles that I just told you to stay away from. What is worse is at some point you will run across one that has plagiarized someone else’s work and copied it right from the website next door.

Are the wheels turning yet? Now you ask where do I find these wonderful writers. If you will take the time to type in your google search type in freelance writer or other keywords, you will find plenty of people looking for work. The cost doesn’t have to be real high either.

I know you have one final question and that is where the rubber meets the road. What is the cost? You can hire a ghostwriter for pennies per word or sometimes you can pay per article. Some freelancers charge ten dollars or more per article depending on the experience of the writer.

This wasn’t your last question? Ok I have time for one more. What if I can’t afford to pay for these articles; I have a budget that looks like a shoestring. Well you still can write them yourself. There are plenty of free online courses that will teach you what you need to know.

There is another benefit besides the back links you create by writing articles. Once you get a few hundred articles out there relating to your service or product you become the source of information. You become a recognized expert in your field. Folks begin to see your name in your author’s bio and say hey I’ve heard about this guy before. He must know something. Folks turn to you at the source and expert in your industry. This is the time right now to jump on the article bandwagon.

I read somewhere that only fifty percent of American’s are internet connected. This leaves the field for playing wide open. This statistic does not even include foreign lands. Yes you can even market to them as they read and buy too. So only one decision needs to be made and I ask are you going to hire a ghostwriter or do it yourself? Either way is good if you are careful with the articles you buy and making sure if what you have is unique. Are you going to give your customers what they want? If you don’t someone else will. Potential customers want information and remember if you write it, they will read.

Christine Bettridge is a author of several books and has a article directory that is accepting articles for submission at http://aboveallcontent.com.

Graduation Robes

Since time immemorial, many students have been putting on graduation robes as part of the official attire for their graduation ceremonies. The other elements of academic regalia are the cap, stoles, sashes or hoods. The most preferred fabrics for making these robes are polyester, cotton and silk, which are not only durable but easy to find as well. Previously, graduation robes were synonymous with the color black but more colors for robes have emerged. Among the popular colors are orange, royal blue, light blue and beige. Some graduation robes come with yokes.

The straight yoke also known as the square yoke is mostly used by modern institutions for their graduation ceremonies. The curved yoke has been used traditionally. For many years, institutions have provided graduation Robes
for their students during graduation. In this system, the students are required to hire the robes for the duration of the ceremony and probably for a few more days then return it. In recent times, a number of institutions have broken away from this tradition and expect the students to get their own robes. Student who get their own robes get them from stores that are found on the internet or from offline outlets.

GraduationSource, a leader in graduation regalia products since 1960.

Release Filth With Total Cleanse Bromalite

Toxins are clearly not a pretty thing, not something that we would like to have in our bodies. Toxic waste build up in your body can be very unhealthy for you. Not only is harboring potentially harmful toxins in your system an unhealthy practice, but having this toxic waste build up can lead to other things as well. These toxins can be found in the pollution of the air we breathe, in our water supply, and, including but not limited to, in the different types of food we consume. You can now purge your body of its toxic fecal matter and restore your colon to health. bromalite total cleanse can help you by removing the toxic material from your body.

Colon cleansing has been going on for ages. Dating back to as early as 1500 B.C. in Egypt, colon cleansing has been used as a method of purifying the human body. Many medical practices have come and gone throughout history; however, colon cleansing has managed to stick around and is widely practiced today, becoming more and more popular each year. Although many medical practices come and go throughout the years, colon cleansing is not one of them for it has only become more and more popular! The benefits of colon cleansing are tremendous, and hard to simply ignore.The benefits of using a colon cleansing system, such as the total cleanse bromalite colon cleanser, are just too significant to ignore.The methods of colon cleansing have obviously changed, advancing with the times and becoming more user friendly.

Cleanse Your Colon With Total Cleanse Bromalite

The total cleanse bromalite system is a gentle, oral, dietary supplement that cleanses your colon. This colon cleanser has completely all natural ingredients, which ensures its safety. Not only does this colon cleansing system remove the nasty, unhealthy toxic waste build up from your colon, but it also burns fat cells, boosts your metabolism, renews energy and vitality, relieves bloating and constipation, contains Pro-Biotics that create a hostile environment for harmful bacteria, parasites, and worms, causing them to flee from your system, and lowers your risk of getting a chronic disease and colon cancer. This product made up of all natural ingredients, which ensures that it is extremely safe for your body. The all natural ingredients of this amazing colon cleansing system will not harm your body in any way, shape, or form considering that they are, well, all natural, meaning they are completely safe for you.

From standing on one’s head for 15 minutes a day to cutting a bit of hair to make it grow it back thicker, there is never before been a shortage of ideas looking for a miracle cure to baldness. So here’s the truth, much of it surprising, on what can really help those looking for the answer to hair loss.

Does standing on your head actually make hair grow? Visit Advanced Hair Studio to order your Advanced Hair & Scalp Fitness Program.

Myth. This is a fantasy put forward in the basis that increased blood flow would combat hair loss. If merely it was that easy.

Smoking stunts your hair growth.

Fact! Yes, this one is TRUE as smoking destroys hair follicles, interferes with blood & hormone circulation within the scalp and increases production of hair shrinking oestregen. Still another reason to give up!

Eating bread crusts puts hairs around your chest.

Fact! Yes, and not primarily your chest. The reason being that bread crusts enjoy eight times more antioxidants than the rest of the loaf. Groundwork shows that antioxidants are a vital part of increasing scalp circulation and creating melanin, the hormone which makes your hair thicker.

The more sex you enjoy the less hair people lose.

Fantasy! One don’t have to consider too hard to realise how this myth may have started and lots of balding men have perpetuated. Variations of this myth include the rumour that chemicals released throughout sex will affect hair loss. Again, there are no scientific proof to this but nevertheless, there is no doubt that men suffering hair loss will often make sure this fantasy is around for lots of years to come.

Baldness shows how smart you are.

Fact! All that is not a fantasy hyped by balding scientists in white coats, however is in fact true. The larger one’s levels of brain growth protein, the more likely it is for one’s hair to fall out. Further around this when those scientists decidedly eventually get their brain cells firing.

One’s short hair cut makes your hair grow back thicker.

False! All the hair above skin level is in fact dead, so cutting it short has no affect on its’ thickness or strength of hair growing back. The reason for this fantasy is that short, bristly hair can often enjoy the looks of being thicker, but once it grows the TRUE state of affairs is revealed.

In the end, if one really want a full head of hair it’s maybe very best to get a professional. One enterprise that has made a name for itself through using sports stars & celebrities to develop the fact that being bald is not cool is Advanced Hair Studio. With a long list of celebrity endorsements stretching back over 20 years Advanced Hair Studio has become one of the very best known hair restoration companies in the world.

It’s easy to forget about health insurance policies while planning an education. Most students are generally in the mindset where health insurance is the final thing on their mind. As a student in your teens you will believe that you are immortal and of course you’ll never become sick. Unluckily, no matter how healthy a person is, it is no guarantee of their future health. A health insurance plan isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. For those students fortunate to be included in a family policy, most of them will extend to a college student until they reach twenty three. For students who do not currently have coverage through a family plan, an essential part of planning for school has to be obtaining an affordable health insurance plan.

What is fundamental in an insurance policy designed for students? Deductibles: A deductible is a yearly payment made prior to the medical benefits commencing, much like a car insurance plan. For example, if the deductible is $500, you have to pay that amount before getting financial benefits from the insurance plan. What is meant by the term co-pay? Once your deductible is covered, in general for every doctor’s visit, medicine, and operation you will need to contribute a part of the cost. That, put simply is a co-pay. What’s your area of coverage? Many policies are Health Maintenance Organization and Partnership for Prescription Assistance. This can mean certain specialists may not be in your authorized health professionals or not be included by your medical insurance policy. A directory of participating health providers are included with your health insurance plan, before you make your selection please look at this list with care. Catastrophic coverage: Be aware that there is frequently a limit on medical insurance designed for students especially as far as terminal illnesses are concerned, the amount of coverage included in virtually all student health insurance policies is in general smaller than any standard policy. Limitations: Student medical coverage policies may put in place various limits. Be sure to look over your policy to discover what your insurance covers.

For in-depth advice, you are advised to visit this excellent prime source for student health care insurance information.

Have any insurance cards on your person everywhere. It’s not only impossible to plan for accidents or illness, they’re also liable to happen when it’s least expected. Make sure you are acquainted with your college health insurance plan even if you are included in a family insurance policy.

So maybe you gaming establishment games of chance, please keep reading — By common definition a betting room is a structure that focuses on card-playing. At such a place, patrons are expected to gamble at one-armed-bandits or trying out alternative betting pastimes. Gambling saloon games may include numerically determined odds governing them which insure the establishment reserves its above the betting aficionados.

A large amount of casino games can sway you into getting overly dependent quickly. E.g. there’s the simple 1-armed bandit, a coin gobbling appliance with three, occasionally more gears which pirouette if a handle coupled to it is yanked. This appliance mostly will spill winnings in correlation to an array of logos perceptible on the lit panel of the instrument. Sadly, gambling saloon pastimes furnish a misconception of power, conning the betting devotee — the victim is awarded judgments, but in actual fact these can not realistically nix the gamer’s fundamental odds. This is due to the gaming room never refunding the entire wager as hoped for. This systematic process is notoriously seen at work in well known casino games like seven-card stud, dice games, roulette or blackjack.

Straight poker is undoubtedly a highly popular casino pastime. The betting aficionados, playing with either fully or partially covered hands, wager in a principal pot which is ultimately granted to the winning punter carrying the highest hand. (Of course, the coolest bluffing hand may well prevail as well…) Much the same as seven card stud poker, blackjack is also an immensely fashionable casino pastime. An amount of its reputation is grounded in its particular mix of chance and proficiency & decision making, as well as a trick termed “counting”. It is an approach in which gambling enthusiasts are in a position to skew the chances of the game to their own profit both by betting & systematic decisions based on the cards deployed.

“Craps” is a well known game based on the roll of dice. Craps buffs may bet stakes on the end result of 1 spin, or on a string of spins on 2 dice. Contrary to blackjack, there is no realistic killer betting system people can play on to beat the odds. Roulette is a well-known casino game — a croupier revolves a roulette wheel encompassing a set of precisely 37 (European roulette) or 38 (American roulette) uniquely tagged chambers in which a tossed ball must come to land, which determines the winner and the related sequences. Whenever a gamer wagers on a number and makes it so they’ve got a lucky hand, the guaranteed payout will be thirty-five to one, the stake proper will be repaid. Indeed in total the original bet is increased by thirty six.

Do your best to stay vigilant nevertheless for such gaming room games of chance can be alarmingly habituating. Way too many lives have been spoilt in the course of gambling and although it indeed feels entertaining, work to not get carried away.

gambling game

Creating content is one of the Article Marketer’s biggest jobs. One of the best ways to create content is to simply repurpose IP (intellectual property) that you’ve already got laying around. Leveraging existing material saves time and energy, and helps you integrate your article marketing more seamlessly with the work it supports. Take a tip from our eco-warrior friends and reduce, reuse and recycle what you’ve already gone to so much trouble to create – and give your article marketing productivity a boost in the process.

Leveraging your content for fun and profit

The key to increasing your article marketing results without working your fingers to the bone is leverage – in this instance meaning the ability to increase your return on investment by maximizing the potential of any given resource. Leveraging your content involves viewing it as a persistent and mutable resource rather than a disposable, single-use product. Of course there are times when you may have nothing to work with at hand or are entering new article territories and have to start from scratch. But starting over every time you need to produce content on a subject for which you have already created existing and extensive material is simply a poor use of your time and energy.

Write once, publish endlessly

Written an ebook, program or other IP? Great! Reuse this content by summarizing (reducing) chapters or even reprinting short sections as discrete articles. Once you’ve done that, you might even try reducing the essence of the entire ebook into a single article – it’s great practice for writing book summaries for potential print publishing agents. Plus you can then turn around and plug your ebook or program in the resource box!

Likewise, you can create articles out of existing programs, seminars or workshops by distilling each section or class into a single article (or article series, if the work is complex). These articles can then be compounded into a supplementary ebook or workbook to provide you with even more salable IP. As above, don’t forget to promote your seminar or workshop in your resource box that goes out with each related article.

And don’t forget to go looking for articles within articles. If you’ve read Article Marketing Bootcamp: The Anatomy of an “Article Marketing” Article, you’ll recognize this entire article as an expansion of a section on content creation from that article. Likewise, sift through your own existing articles to see if there are bits and pieces in there that could be fleshed out into full-length articles. Top Ten lists and the like are perfect for this. Each list item can become the topic of a full article and the articles combined become the basis for an article series, which can then be combined into an ebook, program workshop and so on – coming full circle with the section above. But there’s no need to stick with just your list-based articles. Any article that makes more than one central point has the potential to be broken down into several in-depth offspring.

Mining for online gold

Create article content by recycling your online content. Of course, your blog is the obvious first stop to find great article seeds or even complete ready-to-submit articles, depending on your blogging style. But there are other options as well.

Scan through your discussion list posts, helpful emails to friends, Yahoo! Group exchanges and other such sites looking for any unfinished pearls of wisdom that you can polish up into full-fledged article gems. You will need permission to use other people’s contributions (comments, replies and so on) verbatim, but if you want to avoid that you can simply paraphrase or rewrite their responses in your own words. Just make sure that your version is substantially different from their original words, so there’s no hint of copyright infringement.

And stop by your website on the way back. Your FAQ, informational pages, resource pages and other visitor-focused content can often be expanded, combined or simply reformatted to build several helpful articles. Of course, these articles should be information rich and not simply promo or marketing pieces – focus on the subject of your work, not your company.

Working smarter, not harder

Recycling your content is not only good for saving time and getting the most out of every word, it’s also good business. Repurposing your existing material across several different contexts and forms strengthens your brand – no matter where in your continuum of content potential customers find themselves, the material they find will be comfortably familiar, conceptually consistent and internally self-reinforcing. In other words, your content will always look and feel like a part of a well-conceived whole, rather than separate pieces of topically related work.

Recycling saves time, energy and mental wear and tear. It allows one spate of creativity to serve several different needs. And it provides the writer with a nearly limitless potential for leveraging their concepts and creations into a cohesive and integrated body of work. In short, it is a magic wand that creates the biggest content bang for the smallest labor buck.

Reuse, reduce and recycle. And then…reap your rewards!

About the author

Soni Pitts is a professional freelance writer and copyeditor. In addition to her freelance work, she collaborates with other writers on such projects as http://www.wordbrains.comWordbrains and the upcoming http://wordfeeder.com/wcad/landingpage.htmlWeb Content Awareness Day event. Need copy? Email Soni at writer [at] sonipitts.com for more information.

For aspiring and experienced speakers alike, each aspect of credibility is to be closely guarded and continually built upon. This series of articles will focus on 15 facets of credibility that must exist for all speakers to succeed over the long run. “Instant Credibility” must continue to be nurtured for a career to continue. If you are building from the ground up, each point must be examined and properly attended to in order to build deep roots on the speaking circuit.

Facet #2: Gestures

Effective gestures are the hallmark of an experienced speaker. Great pains must be taken to ensure that movements on stage are deliberate, natural, and practiced.

Nervousness is at the heart of most pointless gestures. What should one do with their hands, anyway? When you are not using you hands and arms to actively make a gesture, keep them comfortably at your side, so as not to distract from the presentation, and to add to the impact of the gestures you purposely use at other times.

18 Crutch Gestures to Avoid:

1. Hands in Pockets
2. Hand-wringing
3. Hands behind back
4. Elbows in, hands out
5. Hands on lecturn
6. The Finger Steeple or Hand Purse (interlocked fingers)
7. Pointing in general
8. Number indications palms out – always use palms in – your hand becomes their hand
9. Fiddling with rings or other jewelry
10. Beard/Mustache stroking
11. Head scratching
12. Arm Crossing
13. Hair flipping
14. Ear or nose checking (it happens more than you’d think!)
15. Lip smacking
16. Pacing
17. Swinging side to side or back to front
18. Leaning against the lecturn or furniture

The best way to evaluate the gestures you use is to practice on film. Take notes on what motions you make, when you make them, and most importantly, WHY you make them. Once you eliminate these crutch gestures, you can effectively replace them with deliberate motions to enhance a point, gain attention, and illustrate action, often cutting descriptive prose from your speech with a simple but practiced action-gesture.

There are three gesture zones commonly used by speakers.

Mid-Range

When arms stay at your side, or remain relatively close to your body, the gesture does not provide significant impact, and may provide a calming or questioning effect to the statement made.

Over the top

When arms are over the head or completely outstretched in a quick fashion, a sense of urgency, surprise, or even danger is created, dependent of the speaking accompanying them. Stepping to a different level on stage, perhaps onto a chair or table, creates a stronger image, and draws even greater attention to the speaker when appropriately used.

Below the Belt

Bending down may create a “private” moment even with an audience of thousands. Similar to lowering the tone of your voice, which you would do in conjunction with this move, the audience will lean in to what you have to say, and feel you are speaking to them on a more individual basis.

Action gestures often take place in all three zones, whether we run, pretend to catch a ball/ride a bike/climb a ladder, or indicate height and width. Go over your speeches with a fine-tooth comb to find your opportunities to use an action gesture – they keep your audience involved, and keep you away from crutch gestures. Make sure you incorporate your whole body in action gestures, to avoid making them look mechanical. If your arms seem to move independently of your head and legs, you will appear robotic instead of practiced.

Practice your gestures on film or in the mirror. If they seem too big to you, they are probably just right for your audience. If you are having trouble becoming comfortable with large gestures, practice with Extremely Exaggerated gestures, and when the nervousness hits, your toned down actions will still emphasize your point.

Gestures will separate the pedestrian speaker from the professional. Lack of gestures indicate nervousness, unfamiliarity with the material, and the absence of self-confidence. Gestures that are out of place, robotic, or understated will sap the credibility of the most educated speaker. No matter how interesting your words, exclusively watching lips move will cause even the most dedicated audience to nod off. Your message should be important enough for you to incorporate your whole body while presenting it!

NEXT: Eye Contact!

Rich Hopkins is a speaker, coach, and consultant who aligns his clients with their own potential. He has 20 years of business background in marketing, sales, and customer service. He consults with individuals, student groups, non-profit organizations, and corporations. http://www.richhopkins.net

Here are some surefire methods that work for me, and will work for you.

KNOW WHAT STAGE YOU ARE AT. If you are at the drafting stage then your approach will be different to when you are revising or editing; e.g. if I get a block when starting out I use the Grouping strategy below.

GROUPING is a great way to start out. The brain works by word association and hanging words together on mental hooks. Take a piece of blank paper and write down words/ideas relevant to your topic – and start to group them according to any association you feel fit. Just the act of writing and grouping can be enough to release new ideas.

SET A LIMIT. There’s nothing worse than sitting there for hours inspecting the bottom of your mug. I like to give myself a limit to the minutes I work. Short sharp sessions of activity (5-10 mins) are more effective than one longer session (1-2 hrs).

REWARD YOURSELF. Even when I have only written for ten minutes I will reward myself for having put pen to paper. This doesn’t mean I leave my desk and watch tv. Just that I enjoy a biscuit, listen to an MP3 tune, have a stretch…etc. It must be a single reward that once over, has refreshed my brain and got me thinking again.

PICK & CHOOSE. If I get bored with a chapter, I tend to work on a new chapter – and not necessarily the next one. Sometimes I work on creating the last chapter of my book, or tackle a chapter that seems exciting. To do this, of course I will have mapped out an outline story with chapter headings. This pick & choose approach works with paragraphs too.

CHUNK IT. Similarly, if your goal is huge (to write a 2000 words a day)then you may find yourself falling short of the target. I prefer to chunk the task and break it down from a general idea – into clearly identifiable steps.

READ INSPIRING QUOTES. There are plenty around to collect from the net. My favourite is ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ by Albert Einstein (but it’s all relative!)

FIND THE FEAR. Think what it is that might be stopping you. Is there a rush to go out and pick the kids up? Is a deadline looming? Locate the fear factor and laugh in its face. How?

Jot down what might be holding you up and using your thickest pen to strike it out firmly. Then face the fear and study your reactions. Often this will relax you, or at least give you a sense of perspective.

When creating characters I like to locate the fear in them too. Writers are all motivated by our emotions and surroundings and like to be in control…and so are our characters. Putting fear into their lives enhances dramatic tension, and conflicts and will make them more believable. This goes for children’s writing as well as adult fiction. Children love being scared…but in a safe way of course. That’s why they secretly peep under the bed.

I could go on, but there are plenty more tips to be found below. When I can I will add to them…

Writer’s block? Let’s shock it and unlock it!!

Jack Gold http://writersblockshock.blogspot.com/